Joe Smooth was a producer and DJ of house music during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Early life Joe Smooth was a self-taught musician, and started creating original music at the age of 12. In his teenage years, he began to make a name for himself as a DJ in the underground Chicago house music scene. Career Joe Smooth gained international acclaim with the release of his late 80s deep house classics "Promised Land" (featuring Anthony Thomas), "They Want To Be Free" and "I Try," among others. He is best known for "Promised Land", which speaks of how humans as brothers and sisters will all make it to the "Promised Land". The song is considered to be a deep house classic and helped shape the sound of Chicago house music. A full length album became available in 1988 and a music video was produced for the single. A follow up album, "Rejoice" was released in 1990 and contained the hit single "They Want To Be Free,"